Feel Good

Updated at 3:15 pm, November 17th, 2017

IDAHO FALLS — A little boy got a brand-new family in celebration of National Adoption Day Thursday.

National Adoption Day, started by children’s rights and adoption advocacy groups in 2000, is celebrated the last Saturday before Thanksgiving. Bonneville County chose to celebrate it, this year on Thursday to allow the community to be part of a sweet little boy’s adoption into the Ricks family.

To kick off the celebration, Judge Steven Gardner finalized Bruce and Aisa Ricks’ adoption of baby Bryson. It is the second child the Rexburg couple has adopted.

“When you’re uniting children with a family — that’s the best part of everything we do,” Gardner told EastIdahoNews.com.

The adoption and celebration were held in the Bonneville County Centennial Courtroom. Speeches on adoption were given from a number of people including the adoptive mom of multiple children. Cake, punch and balloons were given out as well as teddy bears for all the adopted children who attended.

Mike Price, EastIdahoNews.com

There are different ways to adopt, but a couple things are true for all of them, it can take a long time and be very expensive. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports foster care adoptions can cost between $0 to $2,500. Private adoptions through an agency can cost between $5,000 and $40,000. Independent adoptions between individuals can range between $8,000 to $40,000 and international adoptions can cost upward of $15,000 to $30,000.

Those costs can come from legal, inspection and travel costs.

“A few neighborhood ladies in our ward (church group) did a garage sale for us and earned over $10,000 in, like, two days,” Aisa told EastIdahoNews.com. “That started us out. We paid and got started. I think it took us two and a half years.”

Gardner explained the adoption process can be a long, complicated process because it requires the birthparents to go through signing their guardianship rights over to the adoptive parents. Not to mention everything the adoptive parents have to go through to get approved to be able to adopt.

Mike Price, EastIdahoNews.com

“It’s the ultimate act of love, I think, on behalf of the biological parents,” Gardner said. “And it’s the ultimate act of love by the parents who adopt. To provide a stable and loving home is just a marvelous thing when so many children don’t have that. If the circumstances are right and the people are available, it’s a great blessing to everybody involved.”

Bruce said the whole process has been a blessing and miracle. Bryson was born nine weeks early so, Bruce and Aisa spent a great deal of time out of the state to be with their soon to be son while he was in the NICU waiting for the day they could finally bring him home.

Bruce said he wants people who are thinking about adopting to know it’s totally worth it. “Do it,” he said. “What a wonderful, neat, fun blessing.”